I was having a conversation with someone at lunch today and the typical topics began to surface such as sports, politics, and work. Nothing out of the ordinary, but i noticed that someone was eaves dropping on our conversation! Keep in mind this is mainly small-talk, nothing to do with corporate secrets! I could not help but wonder why this lady was interested in our conversation, so I asked her "Would you like to pull a chair up to our table?" Direct confrontation has the tendency to take most people off guard and this was no exception. The woman responded, "I just could not help but hear you refer to that football player as a black man". Having had a pleasant lunch interrupted by this comment put me in a defensive position pretty fast and I was not in the mood to argue, nor did I have the time to educate the woman on restaurant etiquette. So i thought about it for a moment and I asked the woman another question "How would you describe me"? She seemed a little perplexed by this and responded "You are a middle aged white man who probably works in a professional environment". It was like shooting fish in a barrel, i asked the woman my last question "Now you don not hear me correcting your use of the word White, do you?". Her expression was priceless! She responded to my last inquiry by saying "I am not sure I understand what you mean", to which i responded, "You should not worry about other people being politically correct if you are not going to give your own mouth the same kind of attention"!
I think you can probably guess the woman promptly finished her lunch and walked out of the restaurant pacing a vengeful glance at me on the way out. The guy I was eating lunch with asked me "Why i did you feel it was necessary to confront the woman for listening inn on our conversation"? I simply responded "Calling her out for listening to our conversation is not what prompted the confrontation, it simply expedited what was already going to happen and it allowed us to enjoy the last 30 minutes of our lunch in peace"!
People who look to inject themselves into the conversations of others will undoubtedly do so, and those people who want to find something to correct, will always find what they are looking for. The trick is to notice these scenarios before they happen and move these people along their way because if you do not, it will likely result in frustration, for everyone except the person who is looking for trouble. For those who want to find what is wrong with other people, stop and take a look at yourself. Are you setting a proper example. And lastly, Stop being so damn sensitive. If i stopped to tell everyone about the stupid shit they were doing, it would be my full-time job and I think Jeff Foxworthy does just fine calling people out!
Here are some last words to live by, "Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical progressive minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." Remember that the next time you feel like correcting someone for saying something differently than how you would like to hear it.
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